The fate of boys “is a defining issue of our time”, according to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as she calls for more men to become teachers to combat “toxic” behaviours.
Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Phillipson will warn that boys and young men growing up in Britain need stronger role models to counteract the dangers they face, illustrated by the Netflix series Adolescence.
“It’s clear the behaviour of boys, their influences, and the young men they become, is a defining issue of our time,” Phillipson is to say, adding: “We need to raise a generation of boys with the strength to reject that hatred – curiosity, compassion, kindness, resilience, hope, respect.”
Keir Starmer has said Adolescence was “really hard to watch” with his teenage children. The series has been credited for invigorating public debate about the links between digital media targeting boys and misogyny.
Phillipson, addressing the first festival of children organised by the children’s commissioner for England, will say: “With toxic online influences on the rise, our boys need strong, positive male role models to look up to. At home, of course, and at school too.
“Schools can’t solve these problems alone, and responsibility starts at home with parents. But only one in four of the teachers in our schools are men. Just one in seven in nursery and primary. One in 33 in early years [education].
“And since 2010 the number of teachers in our schools has increased by 28,000 – but just 533 of those are men. That’s extraordinary. So I want more male teachers – teaching, guiding, leading the boys in their classrooms.”
Phillipson is the latest education secretary to be concerned by the lack of men training to become teachers in England, especially in primary schools, where the proportion of men has barely improved despite recent recruitment drives.
But research into the impact of male teachers on boys and young men is mixed: few researchers have found any significant improvements in boys’ attainment or behaviour from having male teachers.
Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, will call for adults to be more receptive to children, warning that many boys and girls are feeling disconnected from society and instead seeking answers online.
“Children want to be listened to. They want to be heard. They want to work hard and do not expect things to come without effort. They understand that they have a part to play in shaping society,” De Souza will say, according to remarks circulated by her office.
“But some of these foundations of childhood are cracking. A different version of childhood is playing out – one that we are struggling to be honest about. A crisis developing in childhood.
”There is a risk of inaction, of apathy – and the antidote to this is listening, connecting. That is why we must listen to children, to engage them.
“We need to be willing to accept failures of the past and do better. That means not just papering over those cracking foundations, but fixing them for childhoods being lived right now – and for the ones to come.
“If we want children to experience the vivid technicolour of life, the joy of childhood, the innocence of youth, we have to prove that we will respond more quickly to them than ChatGPT.”
De Souza plans to investigate the use of mobile phones in schools, using data gathered from a national survey she has launched, and to examine children’s trust in the police, and the impact on children of deepfake technology that uses AI-generated images or audio to replicate faces and voices.
Source: theguardian.com
